Apheresis is a procedure in which an individual blood component can be separated and collected from whole blood withdrawn from a subject. Typically, whole blood is withdrawn through a needle inserted into the subject's arm and transferred into a cell separator, such as a centrifugal bowl. Once the whole blood is separated into its various components (e.g., plasma, red blood cells, and platelets), one or more of the components can be collected from the centrifugal bowl. The remaining components can be returned to the subject along with a compensation fluid to make up for the volume of the removed component.
During the apheresis procedure (e.g., during plasmapheresis), a sample of the collected components (e.g., plasma) may be taken for later analysis and testing. Current sampling systems utilize an injection site with a stopple. However, samples collected in this manner must be completed off-line and after the collected product has been transferred to a laboratory. This process is also labor intensive due to the number of manual manipulations required to take the sample.